Roadtrip
by Stephensmat
Summary: Sometimes, it's good to get away from it all, get away from the things that bother you. Unless you take them along that is. DaleSkylar


Jake had pulled guard duty for midday at the northern road out of town. Stanley and Heather had shown up to keep him company on what was a typically boring job, when Dale came storming up the street in the middle of a heated argument with Skylar.

She looked about as mad as Jake had ever seen her. "You take that back!"

"I will not, because I'm right and you just don't want to admit it."

Skylar's eyes flashed. "Oh PLEASE! Dick York was the best Darren! Every single episode he was in-"

Stanley, grinning with amusement, waved them over. "Really kids, these public displays of affection have got to stop."

Dale tossed a bag of dried apricots at him and Skylar tossed one to Jake. "Figured you guys would want lunch." She gave heather a look. "And you can't have any because it's your fault we had to flee town."

Heather blinked. "How so?"

"If we stayed at the store then we'd be dodging school kids all day." Skylar added, pointing at heather. "That's your fault."

"All I told them was to find a way to get involved in town trading."

"Yes, and now we have forty kids all trying to get the ingredients for lemonade, plus the wood for a lemonade stand." Skylar responded.

"You have any idea how hard it is to find sugar?" Dale asked.

"Forget that, you have any idea what happens when they make the lemonade anyway without it?" Skylar chimed in.

Jake burst out laughing.

"It's not funny! I spat it out without thinking and made that little girl cry!"

Stanley and Heather burst out laughing too.

There was a rumble in the distance.

"Was that an engine?" Heather asked.

"Thunder." Stanley corrected. "Gonna rain tonight."

The noise continued.

"That wasn't thunder."

The noise was getting closer.

Jake stood up and unslung his shotgun. "Heather was right. It's an engine."

Dale immediately pushed Skylar behind the barricade and snatched up the binoculars. "One car." He reported. "Looks old."

"Refugee?" Skylar guessed.

The car pulled to a halt I front of Jake and a woman put her head out the window. "I'm looking for-" She saw Heather behind the fence. "Heather!"

"Amy!"

Amy got out of the truck and ran over to give heather a hug. "Long time no see."

* * *

"Amy and I met at New Bern. She was a nurse there." Heather reported to the Mayor. "When they started questioning me about Jericho, I figured they may be up to something, so I escaped. Amy here helped me."

Amy looked embarrassed by the attentions of the mayor, both his sons, and Dale and Skylar in the doorway to the office. "I figured that if nuclear holocaust wasn't enough to keep people from fighting over scraps of land then I sure wasn't going to help them."

"Then why are you here now?" Eric asked.

"New Bern is getting ready to mobilize. They've been watching you for a while. When they realized that I was the one who broke Heather out, then they got nasty and I was in trouble, so I had to make a break for it. Jericho was the only place I knew of that was accepting refugees."

"Do you know how long we have, how many are coming, what weapons, anything like that?"

"I wasn't in on the battle plans, but I know where you can find them." Amy winked at Jake. "They use Walkie-talkies to tell their scouts what to do, but they aren't the only ones listening, so the secret stuff they pass back and forth by notes." She glanced at heather. "That's how I found out they were getting ready. Marauders hit one of the scouts two days ago. He made it back, barely, and told me where he'd hidden the plans so that the soldiers could go after them. But I came here without passing the message on."

"If we had their plans we could cut them off much easier." Eric commented to his dad.

"Where'd he hide them?"

"In an abandoned Salvation Army truck twelve miles north." Amy told them. "It had engine trouble before the bomb went off, so the driver's long gone and nobody's looking for it. It's used as a drop point by New Bern's scouts because it doesn't have anything useful in it, so the scroungers leave it alone."

Mayor Green looked at his son. Jake nodded.

"I'm going with you." Dale said.

"No." Jake said bluntly.

"If the truck's abandoned, since before the bombs, then there's still stuff in it. Toys, clothes, books, it's not like the Wiggles are coming to town any time soon, and we've got a bunch of kids who's Game-boy's don't work any more."

"He's right." Skylar chimed in. "I'm going too."

"No." Dale said bluntly.

"If you think I'm staying here with Angie's lemonade stand while you go hunting through toys that might distract her, you're out of your mind." Skylar told him.

"Whoever's going; go fast." Johnston said loudly. "Take Stanley with you too. Eric, take over the watch while they're gone."

Jake, Heather, Stanley, Dale and Skylar quickly headed back to the Green house to get the fastest car in town.

Dale hung back slightly. "I don't want you to come." He told Skylar quietly.

"You aren't leaving me behind just because it's risky." She said firmly. "I'm not any safer here. I promise I wont spook and run if there's trouble.

"Spook and Run? Skylar, nuclear winter set us up on our first date. I'm not worried about you panicking, I'm worried about you getting hurt."

"I'm coming." She said, and that was the final word on the matter.

Silence.

"First date huh?"

"Shut up."

* * *

An hour later, the five of them were driving down the interstate, and right where Amy had described it, was a broken down Salvation Army truck. The rollup door was shut, but the space between the cab and the storage trailer had been ripped open.

Jake slowed the car. "What do you think?"

Stanley looked. "The rocks and the trees are too narrow to hide much. If there were anybody using this spot for an ambush they'd need a car."

"Okay. In and out." Jake pulled the car to a halt close to the truck. "Stanley, you stay with the car. Dale and Skylar, you stay close to me."

* * *

Heather opened the truck door. The cab was empty. She climbed over the seat and into the truck. "Clear."

"Now," Jake said quietly. "She said it was hidden in a kids schoolbag, under the toy Klingon Battle Cruiser right?"

"Right." Heather nodded.

Skylar pointed. "Is that it?"

Jake followed his gaze. "Next to the GI Joe attack module?"

Heather gave Jake a look. "You are such a _guy_, you know that? Sometimes I forget that you're… y'know."

"Awwwwwwwww." Skylar commented.

Jake had opened the bag. "Found it."

Inside were a bunch of papers. Sketches of the defenses that had been set up on Jericho's roads, a rough drawing of the town's layout and pictures of the people who had been manning the posts, including Jake, Eric and Stanley.

"We gotta get some better binoculars for the guys keeping watch." Heather commented.

"Time to go." Jake said. "Kids, we'll get the car started, don't take too long."

"We wont."

The three headed out, Dale and Skylar started rummaging. "You ever notice how many people give broken toys to charity?"

* * *

Jake and Heather came out and found that their car had had its tires slashed, and Stanley was lying on the ground between the vehicles.

"Oh nuts." Jake commented, and crash tackled Heather to the ground as gunshots rang out.

* * *

Hidden in the truck, Skylar and Dale looked up in shock as gunfire rang out.

"Where's their car?! Where's their car?! Where's their car?!" Jake was yelling. More gunfire.

A hammer clang against the side of the truck made Skylar jump. A ricochet.

Heather's voice. "Jake! Stanley's hurt!"

Skylar sent Dale a horrified look.

Dale started creeping forward, toward the cab of the truck. He took a peek out the windows, then back again at the sight.

"Five guys. One van, two motorcycles. They have Jake and Heather outgunned." He reported silently. "If Jake can get to their van then he can get away, but it's too small for everyone."

Skylar licked her lips. "If we can stay hidden-"

Dale gave the tiniest nod. "JAKE! DON'T WAIT FOR US! JUST GO!" He yelled as loud as he could and pulled Skylar to the other side of the truck.

More gunfire, and an explosion.

Dale climbed out of the truck and looked over the battlefield. Jake had left two attackers on the ground, blown up one of the motorcycles and had apparently commandeered their van. There was no sign of Stanley and Heather, so they must have gone along. The three remaining attackers were firing down the street after the retreating car.

With a strange look crossing his face, Dale started to creep towards them.

Skylar grabbed his wrist and planted her feet. He sent her a fierce look but she shook her head.

The gunmen were still looking after the retreating van.

Skylar half dragged him, but the two of them finally managed to sneak over and climb onto the last motorcycle.

"Hey!" Cried a voice as Dale gunned the engine and sped them both away from the fight. A few shots went after them, but they were a moving target, heading away fast.

"How are we going on fuel?" Skylar yelled over the engine.

"Not good, but enough to get away." Dale yelled back.

* * *

It was another two miles before the bike puttered out. Dale slid them to a stop and got off. "Okay, good news bad news."

"Start with the good news." Skylar suggested.

"Jake took their other wheels and managed to shoot up the second motorbike. So they can't come after us. Plus there's a pack on the Bike, so they weren't from New Bern, they're roving pirates."

"Which means we've got some food and water."

Dale opened the pack and pulled out a combat knife, a few cans of food a water bottle a map and a tarp. "Right."

"Bad news?"

Dale checked the map. "Looks like we were heading the wrong way. We just ran two miles further from Jericho."

"Jake will bring reinforcements."

"But he won't find us."

Skylar sighed. "Seems we're in for a bit of a walk."

* * *

Three hours of walking later the sun started setting. Dale had the pack slung over one shoulder. Skylar had the map. "Want me to carry that for a while?"

"I'm fine."

It was the first thing they had said to each other for almost three miles. Dale didn't talk much as a rule, but the silence was growing more and more hostile with each passing minute. The mood was oppressive as the gathering clouds.

Finally Skylar had to say it. "So, when I said that we could stay hidden, the first thing you did was starting screaming at Jake to leave us behind?"

"Well they didn't hear us. Jake would have waited for us and gotten killed doing it."

"If they had heard us we'd be dead right now."

"If I hadn't shouted then Jake wouldn't have escaped."

Skylar let it go. "It's getting late."

"Yeah."

"If the bandits are still at the truck, then we don't want to find it in the dark."

"Yeah." Dale headed off to the side of the road and set down the pack under a small tree, only barely too large to be called a shrub.

They both collapsed, exhausted from the walk.

"We should eat, head out tomorrow."

Thunder rumbled.

"Lovely." Skylar muttered. "Jake isn't coming back tonight is he?"

"Even if he was stupid enough to come charging back into an ambush after dark, he wouldn't find us at the truck."

"I'll take the first watch." Skylar pulled out the food. Two tins of fruit. "Peaches or pears?"

"I'll take pears."

Skylar tossed him the can and pulled back the tab. They clinked the tins together and started eating.

Silence.

"Why'd you come along?" Dale asked finally.

Skylar shrugged. "Couldn't let you go alone. Who knows what trouble you'd get yourself into."

"Ah." Dale said and tossed his empty car away. "Great job."

* * *

"The good news is, Amy was right." Jake reported to his father. "We've been under surveillance from New Bern for a while. The bad news is, either they or somebody else set up an ambush at that truck."

"It wasn't New Bern." Stanley groaned out as April tended to the back of his head. "If it was, they would have rigged the truck to blow. Just marauders lying in ambush. Remember how I said that the rocks were too small to hide a car?"

"Yeah."

"Not too small to hide a scout that could sneak up and slash our tires."

Gail looked at her youngest son in horror. "Dale and Skylar?"

* * *

"Mom!" Dale gasped out as Skylar shook him awake.

Skylar rubbed the sweat off his forehead. "No, it's me."

Dale relaxed very slowly, groaning in agony at the hurting muscles in his legs. "Oh." He looked up at the worry on her face. "Sorry."

Skylar was past being freaked out by his nightmares at this point. Something else was bothering her. "Everyone else's nightmares are fading. Why don't yours?"

"I don't know."

Heavy beat.

Skylar reached out, grabbed him by the lapels and yanked his jacket open. She reached into his inside pocket and pulled out the tape from his answering machine before he could react. "Wanna bet?"

Dale didn't look her in the face as he took the tape back.

"I'm worried about you okay?" She said thickly. "You won't let yourself get past this."

"It's not something you get past."

"It's because you don't want to. That's why you keep listening to the tape. That's why you carry it around. As long as you keep that wound open, you don't have to straighten yourself out."

"Listen Dr Phil-"

"As long as you're in pain you have a reason to act all sullen…"

"I was always like that, even before the bombs fell."

"And a reason to kill Mitchell."

Dale stiffened. "I thought we agreed never to talk about that again."

Skylar wasn't about to be thrown off the subject now. "And a reason to pick fights in Black Jack."

"You weren't there!"

"I heard all about it though." She reached out and pulled his chin up to face her. "I don't want you to do anything stupid. Sooner or later you'll do something you can't take back or recover from. And you almost did today."

"Is that why you came with us? Just in case I got in over my head?"

"You did!" Skylar snapped. "If I wasn't there you would have tried to fight them instead of stealing that bike."

"So what?" Dale barked.

"If I hadn't pulled you the other way you would have tried fighting all three of them anyway!" Skylar was shouting.

"YOU THINK I'D TAKE THAT CHANCE WITH YOUR LIFE?!" Dale yelled.

Heavy silence.

"Look." Skylar said finally. "I'm worried about you. You lost your family, I lost mine, and the whole world is an orphanage right now. But… you were the first one adapting, you were the one rushing into Gracie's store and dumping her meat into the freezers, while everyone else was in tears." She looked down. "I think you missed a few steps. You're supposed to mourn, then accept. Not the other way around."

Dale stared at her. "My family was the one thing I had that I was proud of. My family was the one thing in my corner. I didn't have friends, I worked as a bag boy, I lived in a trailer park… I didn't have money, I didn't have fame…"

"I did." Skylar said. "My dad told me this story once, about this guy; walking down a street, when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep. He can't get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up 'Hey you! Can you help me out?' The doctor writes him a prescription, throws it down the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up 'Father, I'm down in this hole, can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. 'Hey Joe, it's me, can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole! Our guy says 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here!' and the friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out.'"

Dale looked at her, waiting for the point.

"You wouldn't let me die because I was messed up. As long as I've got a home, you've got a home."

Dale looked down. "I guess… I just got it into my head that the whole world died, and then people kept dying one by one. I guess I just got it into my head that if I was one of them; it wouldn't make that big a difference. Not like if it was Jake or Johnston or Heather."

Skylar swallowed. "It would to _me_."

Dale almost smiled. "Why?"

It was the first time either of them had asked the question specifically.

And then the rain started pouring down on them.

Skylar squawked and pulled the tarp off the ground beneath her. Between the two of them they held it over their heads. "It's got holes for strings." Skylar shouted over the rain. "But the branches are too narrow to just hold it there. We need to tie it down with something."

"Got anything?"

Skylar looked down at the road, which was rapidly becoming muddy and winced. "Shoelaces maybe?"

Long beat. Dale pulled the cassette tape out of his pocket.

Skylar started.

Dale stared at it for a second, and broke it in half.

Skylar's jaw dropped as he started stripping tape out of the broken halves, and started threading it through the corner holes of the tarp, then wrapping it around the branches. Skylar smiled gratefully and lowered her arms.

Dale finished the job, putting the second half lower so that the tarp wouldn't fill with water. Skylar set the water bottle down to catch the runoff and sat down under it.

Skylar patted the ground next to her. He sat, still holding the two broken halves of the tape.

Long silence.

Dale hurled the two broken pieces away into the storm. "Rest in peace." He whispered.

"You okay?"

"Life belongs to the living." Dale said quietly.

Skylar was smiling at him.

Dale looked away shyly. "I'll take the second watch." He said. "When the sun comes up we've got to get back to the truck. That's where Jake will start searching for us."

* * *

The next morning Jake's car came screaming up the road with April in the backseat, medic kit ready, and Jake and Eric in the front seats, armed and dangerous.

But when they got to the burned out truck, they saw their two wandering charges coming down the road toward them. Skylar waved and Jake pulled the car to a halt. Neither of the two young people felt obliged to interrupt their conversation.

"Carpets are NOT better than hardwood floors, what's the matter with you?!" Skylar yelled as they made their way to the car.

Jake and Eric traded an incredulous glance.

"I cant believe that the same girl who cusses up a blue streak every morning when her feet touch the _hardwood _floors in her room can be so incredibly dense." Dale fired back. "Hey Jake."

"You're just lucky that we don't have anything to eat that makes crumbs buster, or you'd be going to sleep praying for one hour of electricity and a vacuum every night." Skylar snapped as Dale opened the passenger side door for her.

"Really Skylar, you need to try and think back to the last moment that you were sane." Dale told her as she got in.

"That would be right before, 'Hey Dale you can sleep on my couch.'" Skylar shot back and slammed shut the car door. "Hi April."

Jake and Eric gave Dale a glance as he came out the other side of the car. "So it was a fun night then I take it?" Jake teased.

Dale didn't answer as he got in and they drove back to Jericho.

* * *

Okay, so somewhere between the Black Jack episode and the finale, Dale started putting together a posse.

Since he was somewhat self destructive up to that point, I figured he was finally getting over himself.

I made a big deal in my other fics that he hadn't gotten past it yet, so I wanted to write something that started the closure process.

Necessity they say, is the mother of invention.


End file.
